Timeline

We explain what a timeline is, its characteristics and what it is for. Also, the different steps to make one.

What is a timeline?

A timeline (timeline in English) is the chronological visual representation of the most important events of a topic, a period, a process, or a person's life.

It is a way to visually organize information on a topic so that the historical order in which the central milestones occurred can be seen.

This is a technique widely used in the educational context, whether in history books or exhibitions, since allows the sequential ordering of information along a line or arrow that indicates the direction in which historical time passes. Therefore, the events that are furthest to the left are the oldest and those that are furthest towards the tip of the arrow or the far right of the line are the most recent.

Timelines are used to organize historical eras, events within a specific context (such as wars, revolutions, or governments), key moments in a person's history, or the evolution of something specific (for example, items related to technology). or knowledge). They are also used to locate important historical facts and establish comparative relationships between different processes.

See also: Graphic organizers

What is a timeline for?

A timeline is used to:

• Represent the succession of events of a topic or an event. It is used in journalism and other disciplines, but mainly in education, both in class and in manuals, to explain, study and memorize topics and concepts related to history, literature and natural sciences.
• Understand the temporal separation between two events visually. This way, you can more easily understand how much time passed between one event and another.
• Represent the duration of events. It can be shown how long an era, a civilization, a war, a presidency lasted, among other events that have a prolonged development. In addition, it is used to compare the duration of two or more events.
• Show the succession or simultaneity of events. It allows you to visualize other types of links between events, such as causality.
• Diagram the evolution or development of something referring to its different stages. It is used to show how species, the solar system, fictional characters or living beings change.
• Plan projects. It can be used to determine what events are necessary for a project, when they will be done, how long they will last, and who will do them.

How to make a timeline?

To create a timeline, the following steps must be followed:

• Determine the scale of the line. You must decide what time period the graph will cover: all of human history, a specific government, a specific year or century, from a specific moment to the present, etc.
• Determine major milestones. The most important or transcendental events of the information that will be represented on the line must be previously located and organized, since these major milestones will be the main ones on the graph.
• Determine contextual information. What other milestones or events of general importance ―that are not specific to the topic to be addressed― should be highlighted in the timeline to provide context? For example, if you want to represent key moments of the French Revolution, you should probably highlight historical events that occurred in neighboring countries.
• Draw the line and locate the points. The line is drawn from left to right or from top to bottom, and the milestones are distributed on it in chronological order, moving towards the present (or the end of the period of interest).

Components of a timeline

The components or elements of a timeline are:

• Qualification. It is the name of the main theme.
• Period. It is the period of time that will be represented. It consists of a starting point and an ending point. It can span days, weeks, months, years, centuries or eras.
• Axis. It is the line that shows the passage of time and usually has an arrow on the right side. It must be segmented evenly, so that the same distance always represents the same amount of time.
• Milestones. They are the events or facts that are briefly referred to and that are marked on the axis with small transversal lines. They may include brief textual descriptions and/or be accompanied by images.
• Dates. They are the ones that indicate when each milestone occurred.
• Intervals. They are the spaces between one milestone and another. In some cases, they are marked with a bar to indicate the duration.

Types of timelines

There are different types of timelines:

• Horizontal timeline. The axis is drawn horizontally and the milestones are arranged sequentially from left to right. It is the most common type.
• Vertical timeline. The axis is drawn vertically and the milestones are arranged sequentially from top to bottom. It is very useful when you have to add extra information at each milestone, because there is more space for text.
• Horizontal timeline with bar graph. It's similar to the horizontal timeline, but in the milestones there are bars that represent amounts of different elements, such as expenses, profits, progress, and products.

See also:

Timeline Examples

1. Timeline of the evolution of man

1. Modern Philosophy Timeline

1. Timeline of literary movements

References

• Guerra Reyes, F. (2009). Graphic organizers and other teaching techniques. Editors Academy.
• Ramírez, F. (2014). Cognotechniques: Tools to think more and better. Alfaomega.
• San Cornelio, G., Roig, A. and Foglia, E. (2022). The timeline as a tool for visualization and co-design of stories. Kepes, 19(26), 507-541. https://revistasojs.ucaldas.edu.co/